In ancient eating habits, the staple food at that time was mainly pasta, or more precisely cakes, and there were dozens of cakes. In the note novel Shuo Wen Jie Zi in the Tang Dynasty, it was mentioned that "the world is heavy with cakes". In all kinds of history books, novels and poems, there are also all kinds of cakes, such as steamed cakes, pancakes, Hu cakes, soup cakes and so on.

Pork has not been tall meat for a long time. "The emperor eat too fast, cattle and sheep tapirs from soup to nuts. Governors eat cows, Qing eats sheep, doctors eat tapirs, and scholars eat fish and vegetables. " Only cattle and sheep are the best meat. In the Song Dynasty, this dietary feature was fully developed. Beef and mutton are still more expensive than pork in the market today.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, cattle were forbidden to be slaughtered regardless of their age, weakness, illness and disability. Only cows that die naturally or die of illness can be skinned for sale or eaten by themselves.

Rare things are precious, and beef naturally ranks among the best in the meat list. There are two unusually rich menus in "Great Tactics" and "Evocation of Soul" in Songs of the South, including: eight-treasure rice, stewed beef tendon, May soup, stewed turtle, roasted mutton, vinegar goose, roast chicken, mutton soup, twisted dough, roasted quail and stewed dog meat. Beef is at the top of the menu, and its importance is self-evident.

The development trend of meat in Tang and Song Dynasties-beef and mutton is still the mainstream.

This kind of eating habit was formed in the pre-Qin period and deeply influenced later generations. On the basis of famous barbecues in the Tang Dynasty, the recipes are as follows: tender beef intestines (cooked with sheep oil), prawns (baked with live shrimps), white dragon loin (made of tenderloin repeatedly slapped), shredded sheepskin (fried shredded mutton, cut into a foot), snow baby (bean sprouts with frogs) and snow baby. Cattle, sheep, chickens, quails and even frogs are short of pork.

The diet culture of the Han nationality developed extensively and profoundly in the Song Dynasty. Because of the ban on beef, mutton became the main meat of the royal literati in this period.

Eating sheep in the Song Dynasty was a popular custom of the royal family. In Song Zhenzong, the royal chef slaughtered 350 sheep every day, while in Injong, he slaughtered 280 sheep every day, while in Yingzong, it was reduced to 40 sheep every day. In Zongshen, although pork consumption was introduced, the royal chef consumed "434,463 Jin and mutton 4 Liang" a year, and pork only used "4 1 365,438 Jin", which was less than mutton consumption.

The royal family prevailed, and naturally, from officials to the people, mutton became the first-class meat on the table in the Song Dynasty. Whether it's a wedding, a funeral, a scholar's award, or burning incense, the villagers are embarrassed to entertain guests if there is no sheep in the case.

Su Dongpo, a famous gourmet, was tired of eating sheep when he was an official in Beijing. Although he was "tired and fat for ten years in Beijing", when he was sent to Huizhou to live under surveillance, he was still attracted by the official sheep killing once a month. As a criminal, he can't eat mutton any more, but it's satisfying to get some sheep bones and bake them.

In Song Dynasty, pork was not the main meat of literati, or it was a kind of low-grade meat. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong dined in the mansion of Zhang Jun, king of Qinghe County. In the menu, everything runs on the ground, flies in the air and swims in the water, except pork. However, there were 3,000 kilograms of pork in Emperor Gaozong's travel ban recipe, which showed that the main consumer groups of pork at that time were indeed of low grade. So Su Dongpo said, "(Pork) The rich refuse to eat, and the poor don't understand."

But among ordinary people, pork is the staple food. According to Dream of Tokyo, tens of thousands of pigs are bought by traffickers from four towns and sent to Tokyo every day. Countless pork vendors and countless "Zheng butchers" slaughtered these pigs and sent the meat to the table of ordinary people.

It was Su Dongpo who really came into contact with pork with aristocratic spirit. In Hangzhou, because of the need to manage the West Lake and solve the problem of migrant workers' eating, he creatively invented the "small fire and slow stew" cubic fertilizer. This pork dish made of ginger, onion, brown sugar, cooking wine and soy sauce is named "Dongpo Meat".

Mutton is the most expensive place for Han people, but in the Liao and Jin Dynasties in the north, on the contrary, pork became higher. In Song Dynasty, envoys were sent to Liao and Jin, and northerners entertained envoys with the best pork. Pork in Liaojin is a "no big feast". Why does pork exist at the same time, and the treatment between North and South countries is so different? The reason is nothing more than "things are rare", there are few pigs in Liao and Jin, and pork is expensive; In Song Dynasty, there were few sheep, but mutton was beautiful. So when exchanging goods, the two sides exchange the goods they need. Liao and Jin exported fat sheep for pigs in the Song Dynasty, and both sides were very happy.